Gregg Allman

Time Out New York: You just finished a tour with your solo band, and you're about to come to New York for the Allman Brothers' annual residency at the Beacon Theatre. Where are you right now?
Gregg Allman: I'm at home in Savannah, Georgia. I'm just puttering around the house, hanging pictures, what have you. Can you hold on and let me get my dog? She's about to drive me crazy. [Pause] Okay, now I've got her sitting on my lap.

TONY: What kind of dog do you have?
GA: We have a miniature poodle—without the funny haircut, of course. She's about a ten-pounder and so smart. [Sounding worried] She's getting so old. And then we've got an Australian shepherd. Somebody threw him out, and my wife saw him and fell in love. He had ooze coming out of his ears and was covered with fleas—about $600 later, he thinks she's his creator. I love dogs. I don't like people who don't like dogs!

TONY: Every March, the Allman Brothers play what seems like a gazillion-night stand at the Beacon Theatre. When did the tradition begin?
GA: I think it was...well, I know I got sober in 1997. That was my last year of any kind of...or maybe it was '98. I was totally clean by '98, and I remember playing at least...hold on. [Yells to wife] Hon! What was the first year you went to the Beacon? Oh yeah? We started in '94.

TONY: This year, the band is playing ten nights. It almost seems like a Broadway show—but each night, your concert is different from the previous one.
GA: If we played the same show every night, the crowd would slowly dwindle to nothing. The day after tomorrow, I'm going up to New York to do some writing [for the shows]. I'll hook up with [singer-guitarist Warren] Haynes, work on what we've got and then call in whoever else we need to put it together.

TONY: Like all jam bands, the Allman Brothers are celebrated for long solos and instrumentals. When do you know that a jam has gone on for too long?
GA: [Laughs uproariously] We'll usually have the solos mapped out, passing off fours. We're a band that jams—but we're not a jam band. Labels are difficult. We only came up with "Southern rock" so stores would have a place to stash our records. I always thought of the Allman Brothers as a rock & roll–jazz-blues-fusion–type band.

TONY: The final night at the Beacon will raise money for the Big House Museum. What's that?
GA: It's a big ol' house in Macon, Georgia, where the whole band used to live. We had a baby-blue upright piano in the kitchen that we found for 12 or 14 bucks. I wrote a lot of our songs on that old gal. Anyway, some friends of ours bought the house, and are [establishing it] as a monument to the Bros. You oughta take a peek at it. Man, you'd love Georgia! It's the opposite of Times Square. People are real nice and friendly and kind, the food is killer, and the women are gorgeous. What more could a man ask for?